As the imperial player, do i start with the groups marked as 'initial groups' with their deployment card on the table? Does that then return to hand if they are defeated?

Presumably the other groups are kept in hand? Can I spawn them any time I can pay threat, or do i have to wait for the campaign to trigger it?

I'm a bit confused about Difficult terrain, coming from playing Descent (and assuming the overlord played it correctly). In that game we played where if you entered for example water you only paid the extra MP when first entering that terrain, not moving inside it or from it.

How does that work for large figures? eg, you have a Nexu with one one corner he occupies as difficult terrain, if he were to move forward so that he still occupies that water does he take a MP penalty?

Get the Imperial Assault Campaign module for Vassal from http://www.vassalengine.org/wiki/Module:Star_Wars:_Imperial_Assault

The next Total Solar Eclipse holiday in 2024 in USA? See you there!

Initial groups are deployed during setup. If non-unique groups are defeated, the deployment card returns to your hand and can be deployed during optional deployment by paying the threat cost.

Reserved groups are set aside on the table.

Open groups are hidden, usually set on the table face down. You can deploy groups by paying their threat cost during an optional deployment. Optional deployment can come from mission events explicitly, and happens during the deploy/reinforce step of the status phase. The order of status phase is important! End of round effects come after deploy/reinforce step, and increase threat step comes before.

There is no moving inside something. Figures move one space at a time and you pay extra cost for each space you enter (whether from hostile figures or difficult terrain). Often you can avoid the extra costs by moving through different spaces.

Large figures - read Large Figures. Large figures can only move orthogonally, and pay extra cost if any of their spaces enter difficult terrain or spaces with hostile figures (not for each separately), i.e. max 2 extra mp. Note that Nexu is Mobile, so it doesn't need to pay extra costs, and AT-ST is Massive, so that doesn't need to pay either. Large figures also move 1 space at a time.

Also note that Nexu's Pounce is not movement, it is placement within 3 spaces, so Nexu can end up 4 spaces away (place one of its spaces within 3 spaces, the rest of the figure in any orientation), so it can sometimes take the Nexu further than 6 movement points would. You cannot count spaces through blocking terrain though, although Mobile allows the Nexu to move through it.

(There are other threads about Nexu movement here, so I won't go into more details.)

As the imperial player, do i start with the groups marked as 'initial groups' with their deployment card on the table? Does that then return to hand if they are defeated?

Initial groups start on the map in their indicated positions, and their cards should begin in play, face-up. Any non-unique deployments cards return to your hand of Open Groups when defeated. (Uniques are indicated with a small black square before their name, such as Darth Vader.)

ghost whistler wrote:

Presumably the other groups are kept in hand? Can I spawn them any time I can pay threat, or do i have to wait for the campaign to trigger it?

There are two further types of groups:- Reserved Groups: These groups are not in your hand and you may not play them until a mission trigger tells you to do so. You should set these to the side and keep them face-down until you need to spawn them.

- Open Groups: These groups are your hand. Normally you will be able to choose from your entire collection which groups make up your open groups, and the mission will simply state a specific number that you are allowed to bring. So if the mission says "Open groups: 3" then you need to choose 3 deployment cards from among your collection that are either Imperial or Scum and they will make up your hand. You cannot change your mind in the middle of a mission - your choice of 3 should be made to cover multiple possible outcomes of what the rebels might do. You cannot include Unique deployment cards in your Open groups unless you have earned them. Usually this will be through an Agenda card mission (such as with Darth Vader). Once you have earned a Unique deployment card (referred to as Villains in the campaign), you may include them in your open groups for any future mission.

Both reserved and open groups that are defeated will return to your Open groups hand if they are non-unique.

ghost whistler wrote:

I'm a bit confused about Difficult terrain, coming from playing Descent (and assuming the overlord played it correctly). In that game we played where if you entered for example water you only paid the extra MP when first entering that terrain, not moving inside it or from it.

You pay 1 extra MP each time you enter a space that contains difficult terrain (it doesn't matter whether or not you were 'already in' the difficult terrain).

ghost whistler wrote:

How does that work for large figures? eg, you have a Nexu with one one corner he occupies as difficult terrain, if he were to move forward so that he still occupies that water does he take a MP penalty?

Nexus are actually Mobile and so ignore difficult terrain costs. For other units, such as the E-Web engineer, it costs you 1 MP to enter a space containing difficult terrain, this is if any of the E-Web's base enters a difficult space. However, if both spaces you enter are difficult, it still only costs 1 extra MP. (For any unit, the most you ever pay extra for difficult terrain is 1MP per MP you spend.)